Lu Xiaopeng

Lu Xiaopeng (; 19 August 1920 – 16 October 2000) was a Chinese aircraft designer who spent most of his career at Hongdu Aviation (formerly Nanchang Aircraft). He was the chief designer of the Nanchang Q-5 supersonic attack aircraft, one of the most widely deployed aircraft of the PLA Air Force. He also designed the Nanchang J-12, the world's lightest supersonic fighter, which however never entered service. He was an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Early life and career Lu was born on 19 August 1920 in Shanghai, Republic of China, with his ancestral home in Changzhou, Jiangsu. He studied at the Jiangsu Provincial High School from 1935 to 1937, and then entered the National Central University to study aeronautical engineering. After the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, the university was exiled in Chongqing, China's wartime capital, and he graduated in 1941.

In 1942, he received further training at the Republic of China Air Force's mechanics school in Chengdu. A year later, he was assigned to work for the No. 2 Aircraft Manufacturing Factory in Nanchuan, Chongqing, as an aircraft designer. The project began in October 1956, and the plane took its maiden flight less than two years later, on 26 July 1958. The development cycle was less than half that of similar planes designed in Japan and Czechoslovakia and the performance was superior.

Designing the Nanchang Q-5 attack aircraft

In 1958, Lu was transferred to the Hongdu Aircraft Factory (320 Factory) in Nanchang, and appointed chief designer of the Nanchang Q-5 supersonic attack aircraft. In January 1972, a modified Q-5 aircraft (Q5-A) was used to conduct a hydrogen bomb test at Lop Nur.

In 1981, Lu was again named chief designer for updating the Q-5 with an improved range. The redesigned Q-5, with seven different models, became one of the most widely used aircraft in the Chinese Air Force. It was also exported to foreign countries. In 1985, the Q-5 project won the Special Prize of the State Science and Technology Progress Award. In 1969, Lu was tasked with designing the Nanchang J-12 supersonic fighter. Only 17 months later, the aircraft took its first flight on 26 December 1970. The J-12 was the first fighter jet completely designed with Chinese technology and not modelled after a Soviet aircraft. It was also the lightest supersonic fighter in the world, with exceptional dexterity and evasion ability. However, its light weight also proved to be a weakness, as the limited space for missiles and fuel and the lack of a radar meant it had poor range and combat capabilities. As a result, the J-12 never entered service, but it laid a solid foundation for the future development of fighters.

Other contributions and awards In addition to designing aircraft, Lu conducted theoretical research on aerodynamics. He wrote a textbook on aircraft design in 1974, and a 400,000-word research report on fourth-generation lightweight fighters. In 1991, he was awarded the Aviation Gold Medal, the highest award in China's aviation industry. He was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 1995.

Lu died on 16 October 2000, at the age of 80.